My photos of Maynard's left hand grip from multiple concerts are so disorganized that I'm not even going to try to post them as a way of showing a pattern or evolution. But you can go to my website and click on Maynard Ferguson and see his grip in May of '06. There are several photos which show him holding his horn, and in each case, he's holding it the same way. That isn't to say that he always held it that way, but he certainly did most of the time.

Regarding grips in general...

Most of us youngin's were taught to hold the horn with the "ring finger" in the 3rd valve slide ring. I obliged for many years, even beyond college music school.

However, sometime later, I found that it was just as easy to hold it with the middle finger in the slide ring. Well, then I discovered that it was actually easier to hold the horn and use the 3rd valve slide using that grip.

As a person who plays 4th, I have to play a lot of low Ds and C#s. So, these days, I alternate between those two grips, depending on what feels comfortable at the moment and what I need to do. (Yammie, however, never needs to play those low notes. image )